Strengthening ESG & carbon frameworks for a climate solutions platform - BC-959

Project type: Innovation
Desired discipline(s): Environmental sciences, Natural Sciences, Economics, Social Sciences & Humanities, Political science
Company: XG Energy LTD.
Project Length: 6 months to 1 year
Preferred start date: As soon as possible.
Language requirement: English
Location(s): BC, Canada
No. of positions: 1
Desired education level: Master'sPhDPostdoctoral fellow
Open to applicants registered at an institution outside of Canada: No

About the company: 

XG Energy is a startup based in Vancouver, Canada, is building a platform that connects environmental solutions with the specific challenges they are designed to address.

XG Energy’s customers include researchers, companies seeking sustainable solutions, investors focused on ESG goals, and organizations working to solve environmental challenges.

XG Energy solves the challenge of connecting environmental innovations with real-world problems by bridging the gap between researchers, companies, and sustainability goals.

The platform is designed to:

● Link environmental solutions directly to real-world environmental challenges.

● Match companies needing to meet ESG goals with researchers working on sustainability projects.

● Connect companies seeking sustainable products with the innovators who create them.

By connecting these three points, XG Energy helps researchers not only fund their solutions but also implement them, either by addressing real environmental problems or by matching them with companies actively seeking sustainable innovations. The platform uses an AI-driven matching algorithm that analyzes project summaries and environmental needs to create high-quality, actionable connections. The platform also includes an interactive map that displays environmental challenges, solutions, and institutions worldwide, allowing users to easily find opportunities for collaboration and impact.

Describe the project.: 

XG Energy is building an AI-powered platform that matches environmental problems such as wildfires, GHG emissions, and water pollution with science-backed solutions, researchers, and sustainability-focused projects. To ensure our platform remains trustworthy and attractive to ESG-aligned investors, companies, and institutions, we must integrate high-integrity standards around ESG metrics and carbon credit systems.
This project focuses on building the foundational ESG and carbon credit compliance framework of the platform. The selected researcher will investigate and help define criteria that ensure submitted solutions and challenges align with credible sustainability frameworks. This includes identifying greenwashing risks, evaluating ESG reporting practices, and mapping how certified carbon credits (e.g. Verra, Gold Standard) can be incorporated into the platform.
Key tasks include reviewing major ESG standards (such as SASB, GRI, and SFDR), carbon credit registries, and sustainability taxonomies (EU, ISSB, etc.) to recommend data structures, red flag indicators, and policy alignment strategies. The researcher will also support the classification of solution providers and investors based on impact categories and regulatory compliance needs.
The result will be a scalable, standards-aligned system that enhances transparency and credibility especially critical as the platform supports investment and procurement decisions. The work will directly inform how solutions are scored, labeled, and filtered for users like ESG investors or companies seeking validated sustainable options.
Ideal candidates will bring experience in environmental policy, climate finance, or ESG reporting and an understanding of carbon credit mechanisms. This project will help define how trust, compliance, and accountability are built into the future of climate-tech platforms.

Required expertise/skills: 

The ideal candidate will have an academic background in environmental policy, sustainability reporting, carbon finance, economics, or a related discipline. Experience or interest in ESG compliance, carbon credit mechanisms, or green finance is highly valuable.
Useful skills include familiarity with leading ESG frameworks (e.g., GRI, SASB, SFDR, TCFD), carbon credit standards (e.g., Verra, Gold Standard, Climate Action Reserve), and sustainability taxonomies (such as the EU taxonomy or ISSB guidance). Knowledge of how organizations report ESG metrics and how to assess credibility, impact, and potential greenwashing is an asset.
While technical coding skills are not required, the candidate should be comfortable working with structured datasets, interpreting ESG or carbon certification data, and contributing to the development of classification and scoring systems. Strong analytical thinking, policy review skills, and the ability to translate complex standards into platform-usable formats are key.
Preferred experience includes:
● Reviewing ESG or carbon credit compliance documents
● Mapping regulatory frameworks to business/solution profiles
● Developing red flag indicators or trust-based labeling systems
Optional assets:
● Familiarity with tools like Excel, PowerBI, or Airtable for sorting/reporting data
● Previous involvement with climate finance platforms, carbon registries, or environmental audits